Terror of the triads

Triads are among the most powerful - and feared - criminal gangs in the world, rivalling the ruthless Russian and Italian mafias and with a sphere of influence in Britain, Canada and the US.

London's Chinatown has been ruled for decades by two Triad gangs, known as 14K and Wo Shing Wo, which both originate in Hong Kong. They have long had a stranglehold over the restaurant trade, using gambling dens as a base for extortion, smuggling, prostitution and credit card fraud.

Gangland turf wars have spilled over into murders. In June, a Chinese man in his thirties was shot dead in the BRB bar in Gerrard Street, and five years earlier, a man was hacked to death a few yards away by a gang with machetes.

The latest murder may signal a rise in tension as the Triads take on the Snakehead gangs from mainland China. The Snakeheads, mainly from Fujian province, are linked to human trafficking including the deaths of 58 illegal immigrants left to suffocate in a lorry at Dover in 2000.